East Hampton ’09

Back from another lovely, tasty, way-too-short stay at my in-laws’ in East Hampton. It’s a long trip from Minneapolis, once you fly into La Guardia and hitch a ride to the east end of Long Island; door-to-door, the better part of eight hours, drag. But hey, I’m not really complaining – it’s East Hampton for goodness’ sake, one of the loveliest places on the planet. We had a great time hanging with John’s parents, and brother’s family, and our friends the Bryts. And of course we enjoyed seriously delicious food!

We dove right in, Wednesday night, with steaks at The Palm, an East Hampton standard. Giant, crusty-juicy steakhouse steaks, in fact, which saw us through lunch the next day and the day after that. Nice.

Thursday night my father-in-law John cooked for the crowd, which is always a very fine thing. This year he made his famous, perfect crab cakes – served in a little pool of delicious, spicy tomato sauce – for a first course. He followed with braised, boneless short ribs, silky-tender in a smooth, beefy-rich sauce, with sauteed zucchini alongside. And to finish – a gorgeous (my pic, below, doesn’t do it justice), classic New York cheesecake, creamy and light and sincerely decadent. Uff, quite a meal, so fabulous.

Friday night was beach cookout night, one of my very favorite things to do. We were on Mecox Beach this year, in Bridgehampton, on a perfect summer’s night. Bartley created his usual genius firepit in the sand, and he and Tom grilled hot dogs, burgers, shrimps, chicken, and zucchini. I’ll tell you, hot dogs and burgers grilled on the beach over wood are so insanely delicious, it should be a crime. Maud made her famous guacamole, which the crowd inhaled in about 30 seconds, and the kids made their own dessert in the form of s’mores, but of course.

Saturday morning, Nathan and I…came home. Blink, the trip was over, an awful lot of traveling for just two days of fun-in-the-sun, but so it goes. Next up, Montana, baby, we’re covering coast to coast. Stay tuned…